Enforcement Of Ban Research Articles

Enforcing International Disarmament: The Iraqi Case

The United Nations Security Council has imposed far-reaching inter- national controls on Iraq including drastic measures of unilateral dis- armament and a highly intrusive open-ended inspection regime. This would seem to represent a dramatic new departure in international enforcement, going well beyond any previous UN enforcement action, and was possible only because of cooperation among the great powers in the post-Cold War period. The sanctions imposed on Iraq in August 1990 have been of limited effectiveness despite that Iraq was more vulnerable to economic warfare than most other states. The problem has been not with the economic impact of the sanctions, which have indeed created hardship, but in their political effectiveness. No comment is offered regarding parallels to the North Korean case, but it seems doubtful that economic sanctions alone can secure Iraqi compliance, let alone force a change in the nature of the regime. The implications of the Iraqi experience for future international enforcement of bans on weapons of mass destruction are also very disturbing. The inspections are being carried out under ideal conditions from the inspectors` viewpoint, yet the prevailing judgment is that Iraq has succeeded in concealing a significant part of its missiles and its production facilities for chemical and nuclear weapons, and that it could very well reemerge as a threatening power within a few years after the end of the inspection regime.